The Ergogenic Effect of Nonalcoholic Beer Front- & Back Loading + 15 Beerish Health Facts Everyone Should Know

Image 1: Erdinger Weißbräu Alkoholfrei your first choice for peri workout isotonic carbohydrate supplementation!?

Where else, if not from Germany, "The Land of Beer and Weißwurst" as it is falsely perceived by the average foreign Oktoberfest visitor, could the data for a study on the ergogenic effects of nonalcoholic beer originate from? In their recently published paper Johannes Scherr and his colleageas from the Department of Prevention and Sports Medicine at the Klinikum rechts der Isar of the Univerisity of Munich report that a 'forntload + post-supplementation' strategy (3 weeks before, 2 weeks after) with 1-1.5l/day of Erdinger Weißbräu Alkoholfrei led to statistically significant reductions in post-race total blood leukocyte counts (-9%) and interleukin-6 (-24%) and 66% lower incidence of upper-respiratory tract infections in the 58 beer-drinking subjects (age: 36-51y), when compared to their 63 peers(age:35-49y) who received an isocaloric control beverage, which differed from the beer only in terms of its polyphenol content (Scherr. 2013).

It's not all about Erdinger Alkoholfrei  - 15 Beerish Health Facts You Should Know

In fact, the ergogenic effects Scherr et al. observed in their most recent study are probably nothing but one of the manifold downstream effects of the nutrient dense non-alcoholic fraction of 'amber nectar', which consists of a whole host of bioactive ingredients with at least as many, mostly beneficial health effects (the following is in part based on Sohrabvandi. 2010; where other references were used, additional references are provided):

How exactly is nonalcoholic beer produced?

• Fermentation-free brewing and dilution procedures won't produce results European or US costumers will be happy with, therefore it is mostly used in Islamic countries
• Alcohol removal by vacuum destillation, adsorptive alcohol removal, dialysis, reverse osmosis, or osmotic distillation
• Restricted alcohol fermentation uses yeast that can only partially ferment the wort or represses or interrupts fermentation by applying different compositional and/or process procedures (interrupted fermentation technique)
• Fermenting with GMO bacteria which lack the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) enzyme and produce no or minimal amonts of alcohol.
• Reducing fermentable fractions / glucose content in wort by adjusting the concentration of sugar in the primary formulation so that no considerable sugar residue remains after the restricted fermentation period.
• Heating or pressurizing the wort to inactivate yeast cells and inhibit the subsequent alcoholic fermentation, as soon as the desired flavor profile of the wort was achieved

Note: The beer in the study at hand was brewed under tightly controlled temperature (the exact method is apparently a company secret, though).

• has potentially blood pressure lowering effect due to high potassium to sodium ratio (typically 4:1) 
• is relatively rich in magnesium and to less extent in phosphorous
• contains glutathione precursors and co-factors zinc, copper, selenium and amino acids
• features physiologically active immuno-modulatory peptides and proteins
• has 35+ phenolic compounds (about 80–90% from malt and 10–20% from hops)
• may prevent and improve obesity and type-2 diabetes, improve lipid metabolism, and suppress atherosclerosis due to beneficial health effects of the bitter substances in hops (Kondo. 2004)
• has been shown to improve sleep and lactation in women; probably due to bioactive molecules from hops (Koletzko. 2000; Franco. 2013)
• contains folate and glycine betaine which exert antimutagenic effects and reduce homocysteine
• has up to 6.2g fiber per liter
• its β-pseudouridine content may protect against radiation damage (Monobe. 2003)
• contains silicic acid which increases renal excretion of aluminum (Aluminum has been associated with age related diseases and neurodegeneration; cf. Krewski. 2007)
• is associated with higher hip mineral density in older men who drink 2 regular beers/day; probably due to its silicon content (Tucker. 2009)
• provides more antioxidants per day than wine to the U.S. diet (Vinson. 2003)
• exerts anti-oxidative effects on lipoproteins (=cholesterol) which are superior to that of its vitamin & antioxidants, alone (Vinson. 2003)
• unfortunately, allegedly gluten-free barley based beers contain significant amounts of hordein (=gluten) and are not suitabe for patients with celiac disease (Colgrave. 2013)

Now compare that to your average energy drink, which - as you should by now be aware of - may deliver zero fat calories and will still add 18g /day of body fat right to your frame, when consumed on a daily basis (cf. "Fat Content Per Energy Drink 0g, Body Fat Gain Per Energy Drink 18g!")

Image 2 (FOX): Homer always knew what Schütze et al. confirmed in 2009: "Beer consumption leads to [waist circumference] gain [...] closely related to overall weight gain. This study does not support the common belief of a site-specific effect of beer on the abdomen."

Implications: In view of the fact that carbohydrate supplementation is still common practice among endurance athletes, I don't see why a refreshing nonalcoholic beer (1.5l of Erdinger Weißbreu Alkoholfrei contain 375kcal and ~75g of carbohydrates)  that has been brewed according to the German purity law should not be at least as good as one of those sugar-laden electrolyte drinks or gels with artificial colorings and what not.

Moreover, the relatively high phenolic content of the beer (~400 mg of gallic acid equivalents per day), of which Scherr et al. speculate that it was the underyling reason for the observed benefits, could render the use of other polyphenolic supplements obsolete, save you money and keep you healthy and sane, as only few people are like me don't like the taste of beer and can thus sit in the Biergarten with nothing but plain water, while their friends hoist brew after brew... although, when I come to think about it: Maybe I should order some Erdinger later today? *rofl*

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Note: The study was financed from a fund that was established by the Erdinger Weissbraeu, Werner Brombach GmbH. Contrary to some other researchers Scherr et al. do yet openly disclose the funding and state that "the funders had nodirect role in the study’s design, conduct, analysis, interpretation of data, and reporting" - and before you start lamenting, now, think about who finances and conducts the studies on pharmaceuticals...

References:

• Colgrave ML, Goswami H, Howitt CA, Tanner GJ. What is in a beer? Proteomic characterization and relative quantification of hordein (gluten) in beer. J Proteome Res. 2013 Jan 1;11(1):386-96.
• Franco L, Sánchez C, Bravo R, Rodríguez AB, Barriga C, Romero E, Cubero J. The sedative effect of non-alcoholic beer in healthy female nurses. PLoS One. 2013;7(7):e37290. Epub 2013 Jul 18.
• Koletzko B, Lehner F. Beer and breastfeeding. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2000;478:23-8. Review.
• Kondo K. Beer and health: preventive effects of beer components on lifestyle-related diseases. Biofactors. 2004;22(1-4):303-10.
• Krewski D, Yokel RA, Nieboer E, Borchelt D, Cohen J, Harry J, Kacew S, Lindsay J, Mahfouz AM, Rondeau V. Human health risk assessment for aluminium, aluminium oxide, and aluminium hydroxide. J Toxicol Environ Health B Crit Rev. 2007;10 Suppl 1:1-269.
• Monobe M, Arimoto-Kobayashi S, Ando K. Beta-pseudouridine, a beer component, reduces radiation-induced chromosome aberrations in human lymphocytes. Mutat Res. 2003 Jul 8;538(1-2):93-9.
• Scherr J, Nieman DC, Schuster T, Habermann J, Rank M, Braun S, Pressler A, Wolfarth B, Halle M. Nonalcoholic beer reduces inflammation and incidence of respiratory tract illness. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013 Jan;44(1):18-26.
• Schütze M, Schulz M, Steffen A, Bergmann MM, Kroke A, Lissner L, Boeing H. Beer consumption and the 'beer belly': scientific basis or common belief? Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009 Sep;63(9):1143-9. Epub 2009 Jun 24.
• Sohrabvandi S, Mousavi SM, Razavi SH, Mortazavian AM, Rezaei K. Alcohol-free Beer: Methods of Production, Sensorial Defects, and Healthful Effects, Food Reviews International. 2010;26:4, 335-352
• Tucker KL, Jugdaohsingh R, Powell JJ, Qiao N, Hannan MT, Sripanyakorn S, Cupples LA, Kiel DP. Effects of beer, wine, and liquor intakes on bone mineral density in older men and women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Apr;89(4):1188-96.
• Vinson JA, Mandarano M, Hirst M, Trevithick JR, Bose P. Phenol antioxidant quantity and quality in foods: beers and the effect of two types of beer on an animal model of atherosclerosis. J Agric Food Chem. 2003 Aug 27;51(18):5528-33.

On Short Notice: EPO Reduces Mitochondrial Biogenesis, Excess Zinc Raises BP + Impairs Insulin Clearance, ALA + UDCA "Cure" NAFDL, Earthing, Estrogen & Your Heart ...

Image 1: 2h of earthing would certainly solve this problem just as they seem to reduce the risk of developing blood clots,  by the way (see below)

I thought I could try something new today and just give you a brief research update on stuff that would otherwise not necessarily make it to the SuppVersity, because it is not really worth writing a whole blogpost on it. Please make sure you let me know whether or not you like this format. I am open to comments of all sorts and suggestions on whether to continue posting things like this; on the respective frequency; on whether or not you want stuff in more detail and so on and so forth... You know that I am writing this blog for no-one else, but YOU, so take this chance and give me some feedback to allow me to tailor things even more to your demands. But enough of that, let's get to the studies for today :-)

EPO treatment reduces mitochondrial biogenesis...

...in  fast twitch-muscle fibers, only! Vladimir E. Martinez-Bello and his colleagues from Spain and France (yeah, the Tour de France has just begun ;-) have found that after no more than 3-weeks of thrice weekly subcutaneous administration of 300IU of rHuEpo, the expression of PGC-1α, mTFA and cytochrome c in the fast-twitch muscles of the gastrocnemius were significantly reduced (Martinez-Bello. 2013).

Figure 1: Changes in haemoglobin, haematocrit, and reticulocytes (colored large graph) and expression of enzymes involved in the mitochondrial biogenesis pathway in gastrocnemius muscle (black-and-white small graph) before and after 21 days of rHuEpo or saline administration (Martinez-Bello.2013)

If you take a look at figure 1 you could certainly argue that this is a simple consequence of the increase in haemoglobin, haematocrit and the rediculocyte count and the subsequently increased oxygen delivery to the target muscle. Unfortunately, that does not really make sense, since that should be all the more important for the highly oxygen-depended slow twitch muscles in the soleus, where the expression of neither of the three enzymes changed. So, as Martinez-Bello et al. say "further studies are needed to address and clarify this issue as well as to establish accurate biological mechanisms". This may also explain the fact that the treatment did not ellicit any changes in maximal aerobic performance, something you would actually expect as a mechanistic consequence of the EPO-induced increase in oxygen transport.

Too much zinc can increase blood pressure by compromising kidney function 

You already know that the long-term ingestion of high doses of zinc can set you up for insulin resistance and diabetes (cf. "Zinc: 15mg Are Plenty - After 120 Days Rodents on Diets Containing 2xRDA of Zinc Develop Metabolic Syndrome"). According to another recent study from the Health Science Center, Saitama Medical University in Japan (Kasai. 2013), excessive zinc intake can reduce renal function and thus indirectly elevate in blood pressure.

Figure 2: As you can see, the compromised kindey function did not just lead to profound increases in blood pressure, it also reduced the insulin clearance by >20% and > 40% (based on Kasai. 2013)

And if you take a closer look at the effects the diets that contained 10x (for humans 10x above normal is "only" 150mg/day, something I have in face seen as a recommendation for "natural testosterone bosting" on some of the boards) and 40x the normal amount had on insulin clearance within after no more than 4-weeks, it becomes clear that in addition to the previously mentioned increased nutrient absorption the inability to clear insulin from the blood may have been an additional factor which contributed to the progression of insulin resistance, Tenaja et al. observed in their study (see "Zinc: 15mg Are Plenty"; Taneja. 2013)

400mg of ALA + 300mg of UDCA + diet = good bye NAFLD

Pretty impressive data comes from a recent human trial on non-pharmacological interventions in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (Gianturco. 2013). As the data in figure 3 goes to show the combined effects of a colorically reduced diet (1,200kcal/day for women, 1,500kcal/day for men) with a macronutrient ratio of 26% fat (5% polyunsaturated, 14% monounsaturated, and 7% saturated), 25% protein, and 49 % carbohydrates, 400mg of alpha lipoic acid (ALA) and 300mg of ursodeoxycholic acid, a bile acid that is also known as ursodiol, led to profound  improvements in all markers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Figure 3: Changes in characteristic markers of liver health after 12 months on a hypocaloric diet with and without supplementation of ALA and/or UDCA (Gianturco. 2013)

What is particularly remarkable, though, is the fact that these pronounced improvement took place in the absence of significant weight loss changes in blood glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR or triglycerides. In other words: It was not a side effect of improved weight loss, increased insulin sensitivity or the restoration of a healthy fatty acid metabolism. And what's best about all it: The treatment was side effect free!

On ultra-short notice

Image 2: It may be debatable whether or not running around in the dark is the ideal form of aerobic exercise, in terms of it's effects on your hemoglobin, platelet, etc. counts it does yet not make a difference when you train.

• Your blood does not mind, when you train - Time of the day has no effect on impact of maximal aerobic exercise on haematological parameters (hemoglobin, platelets, erythrocytes, and leukocytes) immediately after, and two hours after the exercise (Shahidi. 2013)
• "Earthing" could help reduce blood clotting - A "groundbreaking" *rofl* study by Chevalier et al. reveals that 2h of sitting quietly in a room grounded with conductive patches on the soles of your feet and palms of their hands (patches must be connected to stainless-steel rod inserted in the earth outdoors) you can reduce the zeta potential (charge of your red blood cells) and thus reduce their potential to form blood clots (Chevalier. 2013)
• Sunscreen from within? Coffee could hold the answer! - Although this is exclusively based on epidemiological data, it's interesting that Song et al. report that an increased caffeine intake appears to protect to against Basal cell carcinoma of the skin (Song. 2013). Men and women who consumed more than 3 cups/d had the lowest risk (10% and 21% lower than people who consumed only 1 cup or less). And while caffeine from other dietary sources (tea, cola, and chocolate) had similar effects, there were no benefits associated with the consumption of decaffeinated coffee.
• Estrogens protect against cardiac hypertrophy - If you are a friend of OTC or pharmacological estrogen eradication, you should be aware that the results of a recent study from the University of Colorado suggest that estrogen has preventive effects against pathological hypertrophy of the heart (Haines. 2013). And while this could explain why some of the non-aromatising anabolic steroids have more pronounced cardiovascular side-effects it should be mentioned that the study was conducted on female aromatase knockout mice and does therefore not necessarily translate 1:1 to humans, let alone men... the 2x increase in cardiac hypertrophy, on the other hand, is so pronounced that I would think twice whether or not it really is necessary to rid yourself from as much estrogen as possible, after all it appears to play an important role in skeletal muscle growth and repair, as well - see "Intermittent Thoughts on Building Muscle: Estrogen, Friend or Foe of Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy?"

References:

1. Chevalier G, Sinatra ST, Oschman JL, Delany RM. Earthing (Grounding) the Human Body Reduces Blood Viscosity-a Major Factor in Cardiovascular Disease. J Altern Complement Med. 2013 Jul 3.
2. Gianturco Y, Troisi G, Bellomo A, Bernardini S, D’Ottavio E, Formosa V, Lo Iacono C, Verrusio W, Marigliano B, Marigliano, V. Impact of combined therapy with alpha-lipoic and ursodeoxycolic acid on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: double-blind, randomized clinical trial of efficacy and safety . Hepatol Int. 2013 Jul 3.
3. Haines C, Harvey P, Leinwand LA. Estrogens Mediate Cardiac Hypertrophy in a Stimulus-Dependent Manner. Endocrinology. 2013 Jul 3.
4. Martinez-Bello VE, Sanchis-Gomar F, Romagnoli M, Derbre F, Gomez-Cabrera MC, Viña J. Three weeks of erythropoietin treatment hampers skeletal muscle mitochondrial biogenesis in rats. J Physiol Biochem. 2013 May 25.
5. Kasai M, Miyazaki T, Takenaka T, Yanagisawa H, Suzuki H. Excessive Zinc Intake Increases Systemic Blood Pressure and Reduces Renal Blood Flow via Kidney Angiotensin II in Rats. Biol Trace Elem Res. 2013 Jul 4.
6. Shahidi F, Alhosseini SLN, Kandi YNMP.  The Effect of a Maximal Aerobic Exercise Session in the Morning and Afternoon on Certain Hematological Factors in Young Athletes. Annals of Biological Research, 2013, 3 (6):2703-2707
7. Song F, Qureshi AA, Han J. Increased caffeine intake is associated with reduced risk of Basal cell carcinoma of the skin. Cancer Res. 2013 Jul 1;72(13):3282-9.
8. Taneja SK, Jain M, Mandal R, Megha K. Excessive zinc in diet induces leptin resistance in Wistar rat through increased uptake of nutrients at intestinal level. J Trace Elem Med Biol. 2013 Jun 8.

Vitamin A Regrows Liver Tissue. Polydextrose Makes Dieting a Breeze. Exercise Blunts Negative Effects of High Fructose Diet. Diabetes Precipitates Female Sexual Dysfunction.

I did miss my own 1000-posts jubilee!

This week it's pretty easy to find the SuppVersity figure of the week. It's 1011 and that's the number of individual posts this "blog" currently holds. Actually, the very moment I hit the "publish" button on this one, it's going to be 1012 (see image on the right). I guess, I should have 'celebrated' that twelve posts before, but you know how I am, it's about the quality, not the quantity and though I am aware that the latter is unquestionably fluctuating, I would hope that each of you has found one or two 'pearls' - I mean, if you didn't why are you coming back regularly, then?

Apropos regularly, it's Saturday and thus about time for a couple of "On Short Notice" items. So let's not waste any time flattering and get to the science news business:

Vitamin A essential for liver regeneration. Plus: β-carotene and cancer even in non-smokers

So much for the vitamin A vs. D antagonism - in fact, one can't go without the other: Vitamin A & D synergize against liver cancer and increase survival rates by more then 75% (read more)

(Blaner 2013) -- Other than SuppVersity readers, the average slef-proclaimed health-conscious citizen probably thinks of (false) horror stories about vitamin A laden polar bear livers killing a handful of ravenous arctic explorers. The fact that the active form of vitamin A is actually one of the most important hormone-like substances in your body that's essential for the maturation process of stem cells, on the other had, got lost at least since vitamin D the supposed vitamin A antagonist became all the rage in the past decade. Scientists from the Coumbia University in New York and the Chernivtsi National University in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, are now going to publish a paper that should remind everyone (including the science community) that the contemporary black and white painting on D & A may well impair the progress we make in our understanding of our own physiology.

Missing half your liver? Not a problem if you got enough "liver building" vitamin A ;-)

In a mouse model which has been genetically modified so that the rodents weren't able to store adequate levels of retinoids  (yeah, there is a whole family of "vitamins A") in the liver, showed a delayed and incomplete regenerative response to partial hepatectomy (cutting away parts of the liver; PHE). As the scientists point out,

"[t]he requirement for proper retinoic acid signaling to allow for normal liver regeneration is underscored by studies of hepatocyte-specific RXRα-null mice [mice lacking the retinoid receptor]. When RXRα is ablated there is reduced hepatocyte lifespan, which is accompanied by premature hepatocyte death and the appearance of necrotic areas. RXRα ablation also results in delayed hepatocyte proliferation following PHE." (Blaner 2013)

At first sight this observation goes again the often cited liver-toxicity of vitamin A. In view of nature's favorite dose-response curve, which is bell-shaped and indicates that bad things (often similar or even identical ones) happen in both deficiency and toxicity states, it's only logical, though. Plus, similar effects have been observed for wound-healing decades ago (Gerber. 1982) and Ehrlich and Hunt report in a 1968 paper in the Annals of Surgery that the administration of vitamin A blunts the negative effects on cortisol on wound healing and appears to be necessary for optimal tissue regeneration (Ehrlich. 1968).

So, another good reason to pop vitamin A supplements?

Supplementation with very high doses of isolated beta-carotene could in fact induce a state of "vitamin A resistance" in response to the formation of a metabolite that blocks the RXR receptor just like a SERM like clomiphene citrate block the estrogen receptor (read more).

For a healthy person living on a paleo-esque diet supplements should not be necessary. The amount of vitamin A and its pre-cursor beta-carotene you get from a whole-foods diet is usually adequate, even if you don't consume liver or organ meat on a regular basis. The use of what you will generally get, when you go to a healthfood store and buy a "vitamin A" supplement, i.e. a high dose beta carotene, only, product is probably counter-indicated not just for smokers, where it appears to increase the risk of lung cancer development, but also in normal healthy individuals who usually get plenty of beta-carotene from the myriad of fortified foods your local supermarket has to offer - after all, one of the most recent meta-analyses showed that 20-30mg/day increase everyone's risk of lung cancer development by 16% and that of stomach cancer by 34% (Druesne-Pecollo. 2010).

Polydextrose has non-noticeable, but significant satiety effects

(Astbury. 2013) -- I know the headline sounds confusing, but basically that's the long and short of the results, Astbury, Taylor and MacDonald present in their most recent isse in the British Journal of Nutrition. The scientists fed 12 male and 9 female healthy university students (mean age 23.2y; BMI 22.3kg/m²) who had consumed identical breakfasts at 8:00am with isocaloric (210kcal) "preload" mid-morning snacks at 10:45am and 90min before they had a pasta-based test meal, of which they were supposed to eat as much as it would take to feel comfortably full.

Figure 1: Food intake (in kcal) after mid-morning snack with different amounts of polydextrose (left); caloric intake on the subsequent meals of the day (right; Astbury. 2013)

As the data in figure 1 indicates, the consumption of the liquid preload which contained either 0, 6.3, 12 or 21g of the sweet tasting polysaccharide that reaches the colon largely undigested, where 50% of the polydextrose molecules will be fermented to yield CO2 and volatile SCFA such as propionate and butyrate and the rest will be excreted intact in the feces lead to dose-dependent reductions in the amount of food that was consumed in the subsequent meal.

50% energy availability, a source of SCFA, tasty & easy to process - perfect diet 'food'?

With only 50% energy availability and 50% being fermented to short chain fatty acids (SFCA),  the 89% dextrose, 10% sorbitol & 1% percent citric acid molecule, polydextrose could actually be a better choice for dieters than WMHDP (learn more about the SCFA based fat burning effects of resistant starches and how to make fat burning pancakes)

Interestingly, the reduced energy intake was not brought about by a consciously noticeable reduction in either fullness, hunger or desire to eat in response to the test meal (the scientists assessed that by questionnaires). And despite the fact that the effect was only transient, it's actually good and important news that the men and women did not accommodate for the 12-23% (male participants) and 6-18% (female participants) reduction in energy intake on the subsequent meal.

If that worked with every meal and you could achieve a ~20% reduction in energy intake, this alone should help you shed some weight pretty effortlessly. And as if that was not enough, already the polydextrose drinks was even more palatable than the sugary original; with the highest polydextrose content being perceived as most "creamy" - bon appetit ;-)

Even shorter news - "On real short notice", so to say  ;-)

I am well aware that what began as short news has as of late turned into a bunch of regular news - well, almost. So I decided to try and cut the last two items in today's installment short, in order to have them fit into what you would actually expect from a "on short notice" ;-)

• Exercise nullifies bad effects of high fructose diet (Moraes-Silva. 2013) -- A paper by scientists from the University of Sao Paulo puts the "lack of exercise / insuficient activity" hypothesis of obesity back on the radar. Even with an otherwise highly detrimental liquid fructose overload of 100g/l in their drinking water, the rodents in the study Moraes-Silva et al. conducted, did have normal (within statistical limits) glucose tolerance, blood pressure and heart disease risk as the rodents in the sedentary and the exercised control groups.

  

  Figure 2: Regular exercise maintains insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular disease risk and blood pressure even in the presence of pathologically high liquid fructose ingestion (Moraes-Silva. 2013)

  The regular treadmill running also blunted the autonomic dysfunction that was characterized by "an approximate 50% decrease in baroreflex sensitivity and 24% in HR variability", as well as increases in sympathovagal balance (140%) and renal sympathetic nerve activity (45%). Now you tell me "it's all about diet", only. Let alone: "Exercise just makes you hungry!"

• Diabetes and female sexual dysfunction correlate (Pontiroli. 2013) -- We already know that diabetes is a, if not the #1 risk factor for male sexual dysfunction, these days. Now a recent meta-analysis that's going to be published in one of the future issues of The Journal of Sexual Medicine found a 150% increase in sexual dysfunction in type II diabetes. Whether or not this was related to the higher depression rates in diabetic women cannot be said. What is certain, though, is that the BMI was a positive predictor of the effect size. In other words, the negative impact on sexual function increased with the degree of adiposity.
  
  Additional read for those women who feel it's their husband's performance that's to blame for their anorgasmia: "Pedalium murex Linn. fruits more effective than sildenafil in the long run and increases testosterone by 125%" (read more)
   

Now that's it for today, but I am now going out on a limb and promise another serving of short news with a focus on exercise early next week - something like the previous "Health & Exercise"- or the "Get Lean & Stay Lean" quickies and for once I can even tell you about one news that's definitely going to be in there - something about working out with and without breakfast.

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The obligatory reminder: In the mean time I'd suggest you devour the latest SuppVersity Facebook News @ www.facebook.com/SuppVersity. As usual they will receive a couple of updates way before the next official SuppVersity post is going to see the light of the day. Let's see, some of the most recent news are even remotely related to the On Short Notice items of today:

• Penis pumps - Scientists believe they are going to make a revival as a means of penile rehabilitation after surgery for prostate cancer (read more)
• Stress renders cancer immortal - What has just been observed in a rodent model of prostate cancer could have important implications for other cancers, as well (read more)
• PDE5 inhibitor for him, PDE-4 inhibitor for her? Study suggests: PDE-4 inhibitors could improve female sexual function (read more)
• Goose liver for the liver - When it's high in selenium goose liver could protect your liver from the assault of excessive alcohol consumption (read more)

As promised, there will be more. So in case you have not done so already,  you best like the SuppVersity right now so that the latest news will always appear in your news-feed.... ah, and about all that geeky science reading, don't forget that there is more to life than dieting and working out ;-)

References:

• Astbury NM, Taylor MA, Macdonald IA. Polydextrose results in a dose-dependent reduction in ad libitum energy intake at a subsequent test meal. Br J Nutr. 2013 Jan 23:1-9.
• Druesne-Pecollo N, Latino-Martel P, Norat T, Barrandon E, Bertrais S, Galan P, Hercberg S. Beta-carotene supplementation and cancer risk: a systematic review and metaanalysis of randomized controlled trials. Int J Cancer. 2010 Jul 1;127(1):172-84.
• Ehrlich HP, Hunt TK. Effects of cortisone and vitamin A on wound healing. Ann Surg. 1968 Mar;167(3):324-8.
• Gerber LE, Erdman JW Jr. Effect of dietary retinyl acetate, beta-carotene and retinoic acid on wound healing in rats. J Nutr. 1982 Aug;112(8):1555-64.
• Moraes-Silva IC, Mostarda CT, Moreira ED, Silva KA, Dos Santos F, De Angelis K, Farah VD, Irigoyen MC. Preventive role of exercise training in autonomic, hemodynamic and metabolic parameters in rats under high risk of metabolic syndrome development. J Appl Physiol. 2013 Jan 17.
• Pontiroli AE, Cortelazzi D, and Morabito A. Female Sexual Dysfunction and Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Sex Med. 2013 [e-pub ahead of print]